Mainstream WeeklyIs it that the CJP movement that erupted across India in mid-2026 is testament of the societal collapse of sense making that mirrors death of aspiration? Vervaeke, a noted cognitive scientist and a psychologist, calls it a crisis of meaning at the macro level or existential exhaustion (Vervaeke, 2019, Flipo, F and Schneider, F, ( 2015), This, as one learns from history, emerges when the development and institutional order loses its capacity to connect peoples’ lived experiences with the promises, values and purposes that legitimize that order. Can CJP movement be interpreted as the empirical manifestation of this legitimacy crisis that has been deepening in India over time, and, hence hypothesis of societal collapse of sense making can be explored? True, paper leak of NEET examination associated with systemic corruption was its central agenda. But then, it was not confined to it alone. As it appeared, implicit in it was the desire to counter the extant development order that yields deprivation in all forms. For, its dominant developmental, economic, political and cultural narratives appear to have lost their capacity to make social reality intelligible and meaningful to the largest part of its population.
It is not simply a situation in which an individual gets frustrated with development or political change. It is a condition in which the society’s prevailing institutions, narratives and developmental processes cease to provide people with a credible explanation of where society is going, why their sacrifices are necessary, and what meaningful place they themselves occupy within that process. It compels one to address the psychological, cultural moral and aesthetic dimensions of human experience regarding development (Sheehan, H, 2026).
There may be several such questions to which individual seeks answer. The societal collapse of sense making begins when the individual ask what exactly this development is for the nation has embarked upon, when no meaningful answer is found relevant to her/his life. Instead, the individual discovers a profound contradiction that exists between the official claims and observable reality. For instance, economy says that progress is occurring, but the individual experiences insecurity; democracy says it is empowering people, but he/she feels powerless, education says work hard you will prosper, but qualifications do not produce meaningful employment; the development statistics say that the country is advancing, while the large section of population is deprived. Constitution guarantees against social discrimination in all form, but systemic inequalities and discriminatory practices continue to manifest in daily life. The individual loses his/her ability to make coherent sense of the society in which he or she lives. In other words, it is the contradiction between socially proclaimed realities and personally experienced reality. This set of contradictions is what begins to destroy societal sense-making.
This has resulted in their systemic alienation which is why they now recognize their deprivation as a shared social conditions. It is gradually transforming into solidarity and creating the possibility of collective action against the systemic failure that structurally reproduces unemployment, poverty and social discrimination. A collective consciousness is on the rise with greater collective identity to build up strong resistance against the development order for collective emancipation .This happens when the deprived realized that the root of their deprivation has common structural source. It is their shared deprivation that gives way to transition to take place from personalized deprivation to structural consciousness. It is structural consciousness that demands, in turn, freedom from deprivation. ‘Azadi’ (freedom) was the battle cry of the CJP movement from ‘Garibi’ (poverty), ‘Bekari’( unemployment) and ’Bhedvav’ (discrimination). It is a frontline defense that one may characterize as demanding a decolonial restructuring of state priorities.
West Bengal as a case
Contemporary West Bengal stands out to be a unique case that can be characterized as having been undergoing societal collapse of sense making while reflecting a broader macroeconomic and cultural trajectory across India. It is frequently diagnosed through the reductionist lenses of institutional mischief, economic stagnation, or partisan polarization. However, these tangible disruptions are merely epiphenomenal expressions of a deeper systemic pathology. The deep-seated anxiety, institutional distrust and social fracturing that go far beyond standard economic and political frictions have pervaded the lives of the people of Bengal.
When the state is witnessing stiff resistance against its cultural legacy of universal humanitarianism passed down from the days of Renaissance to Bhakti movement to freedom struggle to several other movements in Independent India and its economic framework transforms aspiration into precarious underemployment and growing incidence of joblessness, development has lost its soul. What appears to be a backlash potentially strong enough to push back the evolutionary trajectory of the state further is the depletion of its social capital consequent to widening socio-cultural rift. Social capital that witnessed its dilution during the immediate past political regime is now severely threatened by the present political regime causing the rift to widen further. The rise of aggressive identity politics, communal polarization and structural hostility has sharply eroded its historical identity of cultural synthesis with robust religious pluralism. The societal breakdown, as a result, has compounded as the people in the state are in deep economic crisis and are trying to retrieve their lost foundation of collective survival. The state is experiencing not merely economic and political difficulties, the interaction of these difficulties is weakening the social frameworks through which people interpret their collective future.
The contemporary crisis in West Bengal, therefore, must be understood not merely as a failure of governance, but systemic alienation, a collective loss of a shared teleology that inevitably precipitates social fragmentation and identity-based radicalisation. The state appears to have been losing its collective anchors such as shared trust and institutional trust. The core of Bengali distinctiveness, the Bengali cultural identity, traditionally rooted in universal humanitarianism placed above all forms of social divisiveness in terms of religion, caste etc. is currently undergoing a profound crisis of preservation. Its historical identity as a hub of critical philosophy is now under severe threat of dilution. All these together have created a vacuum which is filled by polarization, hyper-nationalism, and systemic despondency. Individual resultantly suffers from, what is mentioned earlier, “existential vacuum” while the society experiences collapse of sense making at the macro level.
When development order of the state, as required, has taken the back seat and social divisiveness primarily based on religion is prioritized as a principle of ruling,, ‘Azadi’ ( freedom),the battle cry of the CJP movement from ‘Garibi’ (poverty), ‘Bekari’ ( unemployment) and ’Bhedvav’ (discrimination) echoed here too as a part of the CJP movement. It triggered resistance movement -resistance against the development order and ceaseless attempt to subvert community alignment or social solidarity that has been resonating over the years as the soul of Bengali culture and that transcends global boundaries. It is not only the failure to expand the means of living (material) but also loss of meaning of living (psychological). While both are intricately related to each other and inseparable part of development, they together have forced a substantial part of its population to encounter an existential crisis. In other words, a meaningless development terrain is created to be seen as a mirage of hope where deprivation rules the roost.
However, this is not unique to the present ruling party. It is the legacy of the authoritarian rule of the immediate previous political regime. Thus, the illusion of development continues in which the strategy of political appeasement has gained significant traction. No matter which social group from such partisan politics benefits. But the outcome is certainly retrogressive. The enduring fabric of socio-cultural cohesion faces unprecedented strain. This is coupled with the uninterrupted contraction of the means of living which is why existential crisis is aggravating. A fertile ground is, thus, created in the development landscape of the state for multiplication of crises entangled with each other to gain momentum.
The crises are cascading in that one may find it difficult to discern the deeper dynamism for its generation. The system operates in such a way that cannot be resolved within the system that produces the crisis of meaning. Efforts are paralyzed to come to terms with all the other crises. Can the transfer-based relief put an end to the legitimacy crisis of the development order and existential exhaustion of the deprived? In the melee of political disdain marred by authoritarian politics one has no reason to foresee a transition from systemic despondency to respectful survival and the reclamation of individual dignity of the deprived. It is a systemic crisis that connects the crisis of meaning to all the other cascading crises. The systemic crisis demands a systemic analysis of the cascading crises which, one may observe, as the logical outcome of the contradiction of capitalism in its decadent phase. (Sheehan, 2026).
Radical solidarity
The true significance of the CJP movement lies in its exposure of a deeply entrenched systemic failure that operates independently of whichever political party holds the office. Their target is the structural architecture to counter hegemonic tool by way of waging radical solidarity movement. It is a struggle for freedom from a development structure that reproduces deprivation despite political sovereignty. The continued experience of deprivation of a large part of its population through unemployment, social exclusion, inadequate access to health and education, ecological dispossession, gender discrimination, technological displacement, lack of participation, etc. has broaden the constituency of this new struggle. It takes the movement much beyond conventional working class struggle. For, it begins to understand that all exploited are deprived, but all deprived may not necessarily be exploited. The radical solidarity may be seen in this light in that it crosses the conventional boundaries through which deprivation is politically segmented –class, caste, religion, region, gender and occupation – and recognizes diverse form of deprivation as interconnected manifestation of a common structural conditions. It shows how diverse experiences of deprivation ignite collective consciousness for collective action to opt for an alternative development paradigm which I call cohesive development (Ray, S, 2020, 2024).
I see the movement as being spontaneous and has made a beginning by way of providing a blueprint of multi-generational resistance movement against the system. Historically, the ruling elite across the political spectrum have successfully weaponised identity based cleavages—caste, religion, and regions. The CJP movement represents a rapture in the strategy through an unprecedented solidarity between all deprived and vulnerable no matter who belongs to which caste, religion and region by integrating anti-discrimination slogan alongside anti-unemployment chants with the economically excluded who are structurally linked arms of the same state architecture.
Formation of counter-hegemonic coalition
The movement has established a template for long drawn, generational resistance. Until the economic and social architecture is overhauled to prioritize the deprived and true structural transformation is achieved, the undercurrent of this resistance movement will continue to boil. It is ‘Azadi’that finally could open the gate to the deprived to rejuvenate their societal sense making. ‘Existential vacuum’ must stop haunting them again. It is in this context that the political landscape of the nation must interrogate the strategic strength of the politics of solidarity as the path forward rather than the politics of alliance. For, historical reliance on fragile political alliance has frequently left marginalized groups vulnerable to political compromise and policy stagnation. The traditional alliances are no longer sufficient to address deeply entrenched systemic crises. By transitioning toward the politics of solidarity, intersectional framework is built up in order to resist systemic crises in the long term. True political progress no longer hinges on temporary partnership of convenience, but on a unified relational commitment to ‘Azadi’ which is collective liberation. No doubt alliance plays a tactical role, but solidarity offers the conceptual and strategic endurance necessary for true transformation. Such an entanglement with solidarism that acts as a common base must be understood as a necessary condition to unite against the dominant development order. While construction of the “counter–hegemonic “(Gramsci, 1971, Pratt, 2004) coalition is now a historical necessity for this purpose, alignment of the non-political entities with the political assumes overriding importance. Embracing this path forward ensures that movements such as this is not merely reacting to the crises of the present, but is actively restructuring the power dynamics for the future under the shadow of our constitution.
(Author: Sunil Ray, Former Director, A. N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna)
References
- Vervaeke, J (2019), “Awakening from the meaning of crisis” YouTube, Lecture series
- VerVaeke, J and Mastropietro, C (2024): Awakening from the meaning of crisis: pPart One, Origins, Story Grid Publishing.
- Sheehan, Helena, (2026),” Capitalism and Crisis of Meaning in our Times” Monthly Review, Vol 78, No 02, June.
- Flipo, F and Schneider, F, ( 2015), From Forward of the book titled “Degrowth”( Ed) Alisa, G, Demaria, F and Kallis, G), Routledge, New York.
- Ray, Sunil (2020, et al), Theorizing Cohesive Development, An Alternative Paradigm ( ed), Routledge, New York.
- Ray , Sunil ( 2024), Birth of An Alternative Development Paradigm, Unfolding of Transformative Mode of Production, Germinal Publications Ltd,
- Gramsci, A (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Newell Smith, New York. International Publishers.
- Pratt, N (2004), “Bringing Politics back in examining the link between Globalization and Democratization “Review of International Political Economy, 11(2): 311-336.